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Pilots hold up a Lakers flag before the Los Angeles Lakers travel to London at LAX on September 30, 2010, in Los Angeles, California.

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The Lakers arrived in Barcelona, Spain to huge crowds and lots of media at their practice inside Palau Blaugrana stadium. Lakers star Pau Gasol is from Spain.

COMPTON (CBSLA.com) — Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman created an image for himself after his now-infamous post-game rant following the NFC Championship that he is not happy with.

Now, his parents are saying people are simply misunderstanding the star defensive player.

Sherman, who grew up in Compton, made the game-winning play in the endzone that will send the Seattle Seahawks to their second Superbowl appearance. However, his post-game interview with Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews, in which Sherman screamed what many are calling classless statements into the microphone, including, “When you try me with a sorry receiver like (Michael) Crabtree, that’s what (you’re) gonna get”, earned more attention than the victory itself — and the attention was not positive.

“People really misunderstand my son,” Sherman’s father Kevin told CBS2/KCAL9’s Bobby Kaple. “My son off the field is probably one of the best people you want to know. I mean, everything he does is for other people.”

Sherman’s parents, who were unaware of the interview until well after the game’s conclusion, say that he attended Manuel Dominguez High School in Compton, where he earned a GPA of over 4.0 before attending Stanford as an Academic All-American.

Sherman reportedly still returns to Dominguez High School, where he was a two-sport athlete, to speak with students about the path to success.

This is the Richard Sherman his parents want the public to know.

“My son off the field is probably one of the best, (or) better, people you want to know,” Kevin Sherman said. “I mean, everything he does is for other people.”

Sherman, meanwhile, released a statement hoping to sway the public’s recent opinion of him.

“It was loud, it was in the moment, and it was just a small part of the person I am. I don’t want to be a villain, because I’m not a villainous person.”

Sherman and the Seahawks will face Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in Superbowl XLVIII on Feb. 2.